Writers Union Member Wins Award
Abigail Garner is an advocate for gay and lesbian families. When she tells people what she does, she sometimes gets silence because people wrongly assume she's gay. Garner grew up with a gay father.
“My dedication to gay and lesbian issues grew from the love and pride and rage and fear I experienced growing up in a ‘nontraditional' family,” she wrote in Newsweek magazine.
A Minneapolis free-lancer and National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981 member, Garner won first place for that Newsweek article in the opinion/editorial category for the 2002 National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) Excellence in Journalism Awards at the group's recent convention in Philadelphia.
As the product of a union household, Garner feels right at home with the UAW.
“Growing up, I didn't realize that being pro-union was actually taking a stand on something. I didn't understand that there was another side,” she said. “People coming together to make sure that they're being treated fairly just made sense to me. Now I can see the link — labor rights go hand in hand with other social justice issues.”
To read the Newsweek article and find out more about Garner's work, check out her Web site at: www.familieslikemine.com
